


A Window, A Light, A Home

by sergeant_angel



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, X-Men - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Billy teaches at the school, F/F, F/M, M/M, everyone is Jewish!, except the characters who aren't, jean and erik are bros just go with it, the gentiles are trying their best, when you say 'crackship' or 'rarepair' i do take it as a challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 06:19:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9222980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergeant_angel/pseuds/sergeant_angel
Summary: Avengers, X-Men, et al, have started a tradition of celebrating Chanukah together. This year, Kitty's managed to convince them to come to the school--no, Kate, nobody cares that you and Eli had to drive all the way from New York City to Westchester. It's not like your guys' girlfriends live here or anything. Get over it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fandomnerd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomnerd/gifts).



An earsplitting shriek rends the air as Kate Bishop dashes across the entryway of the mansion to jump into Billy’s arms.

Eli trails behind his teammate at a much more sedate pace and with a roll of his eyes, since he’s the one left to drag Kate’s luggage in.

Kate scrambles so that she’s on Billy’s back, as if waiting expectantly for a piggyback ride.

“ _Who’s ready for Chanukah?_ ” Kitty yells, giving Kate a high-five.

Next to Jean, Erik pinches the bridge of his nose. “What did I do to deserve this?”

(He misses those below watching his reaction and assigning it a number grade)

“Oh, Erik,” Jean pats his arm. “So, so many things, really.”

“Barely a three,” Kitty decides.

“I think we can get him to at least a seven before the night is out,” Kate says.

Eli scoffs. “Be realistic. Five.”

“When have I ever been _realistic_?” Kate speaks as though the word itself is distasteful.

“Well. That’s a fair point. C’mon,” Billy hitches his former teammate higher on his back. “We still have to pick a window.”

Storm and Teddy amble up to where Jean and Erik are observing. “I didn’t realize we were having a party,” Storm calls.

“It’s the Jewish reunion,” Kitty informs Storm.

“Reunion?” Kate says. “Re-jew-nion? Yeah. Yeah, I like that one.”

Jean rolls her eyes and shakes her head at Teddy, as if to say _can you believe this loser?_

Teddy offers her a sympathetic sigh, because yes, of course he can believe this.

* * *

Thirty minutes later and roughly thirty minutes til sundown, Kate corners Jean.

“Why are there so many goddamn windows in this place?” she hisses.

“Because it’s a school, not a prison,” Jean says, serene until Kate presses her cold nose to the side of Jean’s neck, eliciting a yelp from her.

“It’s drafty in here,” Kate says, as if this somehow makes up for her ice cold nose.

“I’ll draft _you,”_ Jean mutters, realizing too late that this is a terrible comeback.

Kate lets off a peal of laughter before lacing her fingers through Jean’s. “Doesn’t this place have a turret or something? Can we lure Medusa up there? How much do you think she’ll kill me if I lure her up there, then text, ‘Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your hair’?”

“I think she’ll kill you a lot.”

“Bummer,” Kate wrinkles her nose.

* * *

“Holy _crap_ ,” she says a few minutes later, collapsing on the floor. “That’s it. We’re lighting it up here, because there’s no way I can make it back down those stairs in enough time.”

Kate flails around for her phone, which is in her back pocket, and she looks like she’s about to pull a muscle so Jean uses her powers to move it out of Kate’s pocket and into her hand.

“You know I can just tell them,” she reminds Kate after a few moments of watching her try to text without looking at her phone. “Telepathically.”

“Oh, right. That’s probably faster.”

Jean isn’t ever really sure if Kate just pretends to be casual about her mutation, or if she is unnerved by it, or—

“Seems like a dumb thing to use telepathy for, is all,” Kate answers, rolling up into a sitting position.

“Did I—“

“What?” Kate tilts her head, a habit Jean thinks she picked up from Clint. “Did you what?”

“I thought I might have pushed the question into your head.”

“Nope,” Kate pops the _p_. “But it _does_ seem like a silly thing to use telepathy for.”

“What would you do if you were telepathic?”

Kate stares at Jean for a long moment. “Fair enough.”

“No, really, what would you do?”

“I’d order pizza and never use comms again. And I’d still be able to yell at Clint when he’s being passive-aggressive and takes his hearing aids out when he knows he’s wrong. I’d get Taylor Swift stuck in Tony Stark’s head. I’d mentally rickroll bad guys.”

Jean raises her eyebrows.

“What? You’re just jealous because I thought of it first.”

Jean opens her mouth, then shuts it with a snap as footsteps come thundering up the stairs.

“Just in time!” Kitty informs them.

“Why are you all frowny face?” Kate asks Billy.

“ _Never Gonna Give You Up_ just got stuck in my head,” he informs her.

Kate tries to cover her laugh and only succeeds in triggering a coughing fit.

“Right,” Kitty steps over Kate, setting the chanukiah on the windowsill.

A covered metal tray floats in behind Kitty, then another, and Jean considers helping Kate up before Magneto comes in and gives her a Look that probably means something like _I can’t believe my grandsons listen to YOU_.

* * *

 

* * *

“This is so _dumb_ ,” Kate hisses to Kitty. “How did we do this _again_?”

“ _We_ didn’t,” Kitty reminds her with a pointed stare at Billy. “ _He_ did. We agreed last year. Billy is in charge of the fire.”

“Okay, I do _not_ remember this,” he protests.

“Yeah,” Kate’s eyes narrow. “Because you didn’t want to use magic. So you were in charge of—“

“It was a year ago!”

Kate shakes her head at him. “Now Magneto is going to give us that ‘how do you manage to stay alive fighting aliens you can’t even remember to bring matches’ look. I don’t enjoy that look.”

“I hate that look,” Kitty nods in agreement. “It’s kind of like his ‘I didn’t fight for mutant rights for _this’_ look that he gets when the senior students do pranks.”

“ _That’s_ what that look is?” Billy looks gobsmacked. “I just thought it was a general look of disappointment—“

“We could ask Jean,” Kitty starts.

“To what? Use her phoenix powers to light the shamash? That seems a little excessive.” Kate chews on her lower lip. “A lot excessive.”

“Yeah, but she’d do it, she’s still in that ‘I have to impress my girlfriend’ stage, which I don’t get. You’re very easily impressed.”

“Wait,” Billy stares, wide-eyed, at Kate. “You’re _dating_ —“

Kitty snaps her head towards Billy, her ponytail whipping Kate in the nose. “How do you _not_ know that? Even Eli knows that.”

“Even Eli knows what?” Eli shoulders his way into the group, snaking his arm around Kitty’s waist.

“Whoa, whoa,” Kate waves her hands jerkily at the two of them. “What is _this_?”

“What’s what?” Eli looks down, as if he might have gotten something on his shirt.

“ _This_ ,” Billy adds his own gestures to the conversation.

“What, like Teddy and Kate are the only ones who get to date mutants?”

There is no other word for it; Billy _squawks_ at this.

Their hushed and hasty conference is broken up by the Professor’s chair settling on the landing with a muffled _clunk_ before he rolls up to them, the image of calm, holding out a lighter.

“Jean informed me you might be needing this,” is all he says before moving on to be next to Magneto.

“Is that Pyro’s?” Kitty snags it from Kate’s fingers.

“We’re just not going to think about that,” Kate decides as Teddy finally makes it to them, carrying a basket and two separate totes.

“Carry your own gifts next time,” he grumbles, his frown fading when Billy presses a kiss to his cheek.

“Don’t be grumpy, it’s Chanukah!” Billy looks ridiculously chipper until an annoying trill starts to echo and all of them start patting down their pockets. “Got it!” Billy looks triumphant as he fishes his phone out, silencing his alarm. “Time to go!”

“You can remember to set an alarm for when we should start lighting but not _the actual lighter_.” Kitty shakes her head. “How on earth—“

“Are you going to light the candles, or not?” Billy interrupts, giving her a gentle shove towards the window and the chanukiah. “Your house. Sort of.”

* * *

“So? What did you think?” Kate sits on a windowsill next to Jean, bumping shoulders. “Everything you thought it’d be?”

Jean utters a soft laugh. “I wasn’t expecting much of anything. I wasn’t really raised religious.” She stares at her plate of food and Kate suddenly wonders if it’s too soon? Is not-quite-a-year too soon to start celebrating holidays with your girlfriend? It’s not like their relationship isn’t weird in general, how many relationships start because one of your teammates sent one of his fellow teachers in his place and then she literally swoops in and saves your life?

“Stop fretting,” Jean leans into Kate. “I was just worried because I only brought you a present. I didn’t think I had to bring one for everyone else.”

“Oh. Well, don’t worry about that. Nobody expected you to. Though I will warn you that your gift is terrible, because we decided to try homemade gifts this year and I am not crafty.” She holds a bag out to Jean.

In a display of terrible timing, because Jean has her mouth full of latke, which she doesn’t chew enough, swallows too quickly, and chokes on.

Well played, Hawkeye.

“Sorry!” Kate slaps Jean’s back. “Put your hands over your head. Keep coughing!”

“Keep! Coughing!” Eli choruses from the other side of the room.

Jean stops coughing and raises an elegant eyebrow.

“Rogers made Eli and I get CPR certified,” Kate explains. “If you’re still coughing you’re not dying look do you want a present or not?” She finishes in a rush.

In response, Jean hands her plate off to Kate in exchange for the bag.

“Like I said, I’m terrible and crafting and I don’t even know if you like hats…” Kate trails off as Jean pulls out her present. It’s not _terrible,_ Clint had gotten the really terrible one because Kate knows him and he’ll get blood on it.

“You made this?” Jean turns it around in her hands, expression unreadable.

“Yeah.” Maybe it’s the color scheme, maybe it was tacky to do it flame-colored? But Phoenix is a part of Jean and Kate loves every part of Jean, and it had made sense when she’d picked out the yarn—

“I _love_ it,” Jean declares, putting it on. It clashes with her hair more than a little, but it also looks nice on her, in a weird sort of way. She reaches into the pocket of her sweater and pulls out a box, taking her plate back.

“Band-aids,” Kate reads off the side of the box. “Well, I do always need them.”

Jean laughs. “It’s _in the_ box.”

Kate gives the box a shake and sure enough, hears a very un-band-aid-like rattle. She manages to cut herself on the thin cardboard of the box, shoving her thumb in her mouth to try and ease the sting.

There are, thankfully, a few bandages still in the box. Jean sighs fondly at Kate, grabbing her hand and wrapping the slice up. It’s a Deadpool band-aid, Kate notices, before turning her attention to the other contents of the box, tipping it out into her palm.

It’s a very cool arrow keychain with a security card on it as well as an actual key.

“I don’t get it.”

“It’s—“ Jean is _blushing_ , “so you can get in to the school. You know. When you come to see me.”

It takes a minute for this to actually make an impact in Kate’s head. No calling to have someone open the gates. No signing in as a visitor. No checking every room trying to find Jean, she has _carte blanche_ approval to see Jean whenever she wants, which means the Professor is officially okay with her being here.

Kate shrieks. Just a little. Before throwing her arms around Jean.

“Merry—“ Jean shakes her head. “Happy Chanukah, Kate.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fairly certain there's a typo in here somewhere, so let me know if you see it.


End file.
